Help system customization

The Eclipse help system can be configured and branded to suit your
product by
specifying custom defaults for number of help preferences.

The Help system itself is divided up into a number of separate
plug-ins.
These tables shows available preferences, and which plug-in
defines them.

org.eclipse.help plug-in:

Preference key

Usage

Default

HELP_DATA

Specifies the path of an XML file containing help data, such
as the order in which the table of contents should be displayed, and which books
and index contributions should be hidden from the user. The path may
either be of the form PLUGINS_ROOT/ pluginId/path or "path". If the value
does not start with PLUGINS_ROOT the path is resolved relative to the
product plugin. For example,
"helpData.xml" or "PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.platform/helpData.xml". Consult the
schema documentation for details.

filterInfocenter

Specifies whether enablement filters should apply to an information center.
Enablement filters are always applied to help in workbench and standalone mode.

false

baseTOCS(deprecated; use HELP_DATA instead)

Toc ordering. Ordered list of help TOC's (books) or TOC
categories as they would appear on the bookshelf. All the other TOCS and categories
will follow these. Non-present TOCs or categories on this list will be ignored. For TOCs, use
the location of the TOC as /pluginId/path/to/toc.xml. For categories, use the category
id.

ignoredTOCS(deprecated; use HELP_DATA instead)

Disabling TOCs. List of help TOCs (books) or TOC categories that
will be ignored by the help system. The disabled TOCs/categories will not
appear in the list of books, cannot be linked. Topics defined by disabled TOCs
will not be available from search.
Non-present TOCs or categories in this list will be ignored. For TOCs, use the
location of the TOC as /pluginId/path/to/toc.xml. For categories, use the
category id.

ignoredIndexes(deprecated; use HELP_DATA instead)

Disabling keyword indexes. List of help keyword index contributions that
will be ignored by the help system. Keywords from the disabled indexes will not
appear in the index view. For index XML files, use the path to the file in the form
/pluginId/path/to/index.xml.

org.eclipse.help.base plug-in:

Preference key

Usage

Default

banner

Location of the banner page to display in the top frame
Example: banner=/org.eclipse.help.webapp/advanced/banner.html

banner_height

Height of the banner frame
Example: banner_height=60

footer

Location of the footer page to display in the bottom frame
Example: footer=/org.eclipse.help.webapp/advanced/banner.html

footer_height

Height of the footer frame
Example: footer_height=60

titleResource

The name of a project resource of the form <plugin_name>/<resource_name> which contains
the title of the help page.
Example: titleResource=org.eclipse.help.webapp/help_webapp_plugin_name

help_home

The page to show in the content area when opening help.
Specify your html page as /pluginId/path/to/home.html.

/org.eclipse.help.base/doc/help_home.html

page_not_found

The page to show in the content area when a topic file cannot be
opened. If this variable is not specified the browser will show its
default 404 error page.

/org.eclipse.help.base/doc/page_not_found.html

showBreadcrumbs

Set to true or false to control the
visibility of breadcrumbs.

true

bookmarksView

Set to true or false to control the
visibility of the bookmarks view.
Note: this option has no effect in the information center.

true

indexView

Set to true or false to control the
visibility of the index view.

true

windowTitlePrefix

Set to true or false to control the title of
the browser
window. If true, the
title will have a form "Help - <PRODUCT_NAME>",
otherwise the title will be
"<PRODUCT_NAME>",
where <PRODUCT_NAME>
is the name of
Eclipse product set in the primary feature.

true

imagesDirectory

Directory containing images used in the help view. Images
must have the same name as those in the org.eclipse.help.webapp
plug-in.
Use the /pluginID/directory
format.

images

advanced.toolbarBackground

CSS background for toolbars. Value is used in browsers
that display advanced help UI.

ButtonFace

advanced.viewBackground

CSS background for navigation views. Value is used in
browsers that display advanced help UI. May be the empty string.

advanced.toolbarFont

CSS font for toolbars. Value is used in browsers that
display advanced help UI.

icon

advanced.viewFont

CSS font for navigation views. Value is used in browsers
that display advanced help UI.

icon

advanced.syncDefault

The default boolean value for whether the toc should automatically
be synchronized with the contents.

true

basic.toolbarBackground

Background color for toolbars. Value is used in browsers
displaying basic help UI.

#D4D0C8

basic.viewBackground

Background color for navigation views. Value is used in
browsers displaying basic help UI.

#FFFFFF

locales

List of locales that information center will recognize and
provide a customized content for; if locales (or languages) accepted by
client browser are not matched with any locales in this list, the
browser will be served content for default locale - the server locale,
or locale specified by eclipse -nl
command line option; if list is not
specified, the browser will be served contents for its preferred
locale; note: not providing this option may result in a large
memory and disk space requirements as navigations and indexes will be
created for each distinct preferred locale among browsers accessing the
information center.
Example: locales=en ja zh_CN
zh_TW

productIndex

If per-product, pre-built documentation index is provided with the
product, the ID of the plug-in delivering the index must be specified
to the help system here.

always_external_browser

Use embedded when possible (on
Windows or Linux), or always external. Setting to true will force
use of external browser. Option has no effect if embedded browser
is not available on a given platform.

false

default_browser

Default external browser. ID of one of the external
web browsers contributed to org.eclipse.help.base.browser extension
point that help system will use. The browser's adapter available()
method must return true on the current system.

This preference controls external browsers in stand-alone help mode.
In the workbench mode, help uses browsers provided by workbench browser
support.

default dynamically set based on the browser available on a
given system

custom_browser_path

Executable path for custom browser

This preference controls external browsers in stand-alone help mode.
In the workbench mode, help uses browsers provided by workbench browser
support.

Help system filters topics from disabled
capabilities. This option controls this behavior and existence
of Show All Topics button.
Accepted values: never, off, on, alwaysnever - topic from
disabled capabilities are not shownoff - user can
choose to show all topics, disabled topics
initially hiddenon - user can choose
to show all topics, all topics initially
shownalways - topic from
disabled capabilities are shown (filtering
disabled)

off

activeHelp

Allows enabling and disabling execution of active help.
The option has no effect in the information center setup, where active help is
disabled.
Accepted values:true - default
active help actions enabledfalse - active help
framework disabled

true

restrictTopicParameter

Since 3.4. When true prevents topic parameters with an http or other
protocol from causing an external URL to open in the content frame of the
information center. This improves security and the recommended setting is true.

true

window_infopop

Allows enabling the old-style infopops when help key is pressed in
workbench windows. If false, the new dynamic help view will open
instead.

false

dialog_infopop

Allows enabling the old-style infopops
when help key is pressed in dialogs. If false, the new dynamic help
window will open instead.

false

help_view_open_mode

Controls where links in the help view are opened.
Accepted values:in_place
- open documents in the help viewin_editor - open document in an editorin_browser - open document in a browser

in_place

showSearchDescription

If true descriptions are shown with search results.

true

showSearchCategories

If true search results are organized by book.

false

remoteHelpOn

Controls whether or not remote help is enabled.
Accepted values:true - remote help enabledfalse - remote help disabled

false

The 6 remote help preferences below can each have multiple
comma separated values if there is more than one information center contributing
remote content.

remoteHelpName

Specifies a name for this remote host which will appear in the table
on the preference page

remoteHelpHost

Specifies the host name to access for remote help content. This must
be specified as a host name and cannot be a URL (i.e. do not include "http://").

remoteHelpPath

Specifies the context root of the information center application running on the
specified host.

remoteHelpProtocol

Specifies the protocol of the information center application running on the
specified host. If no protocol is specified, http will be used. Supported protocols are http and https.

remoteHelpPort

Specifies the port to use to access remote help content.

remoteHelpICEnabled

Specifies that the information center will contribute remote content

The five css preferences allow for the control of
page appearance by inserting css files into every page served by the help
server. Each can each contain zero or more comma separated paths of the
form /plugin/path. These paths should contain only ASCII characters.
If a path contains ${os} then that will be replaced with the name of the
OS, any other parameters of the form ${parameter} are reserved for future
use.

topic_css

A list of css file(s) to include in every non navigation page served by
help system.

nav_css

A list of css file(s) to include in every navigation page served by
help system.

/PRODUCT_PLUGIN/book.css

narrow_css

A list of css file(s) to include in every page
displayed in the help view or help tray .

/PRODUCT_PLUGIN/narrow_book.css,/PRODUCT_PLUGIN/${os}_narrow_book.css

remote_css

A list of css file(s) to include in every page served by
help system which originates from a remote information center.

disabled_css

A list of css file(s) to include in every page
served by help system from a capability that is not enabled.

/PRODUCT_PLUGIN/disabled_book.css

These two parameters allow for the restriction of the number of print operation.

maxConnections

Maximum number of connections for concurrent print(print selected topic and all subtopics).
Assign a value no greater than Integer.MAX_VALUE.
Example: maxConnections=20

10

maxTopics

Maximum number of topics allowed for print in one request.
Assign a value no greater than Integer.MAX_VALUE.
Example: maxTopics=200

500

org.eclipse.help.appserver plug-in:

Deprecated: This plug-in is no longer used by help. See table for alternative usage.

Preference key

Usage

Default

port(deprecated)

The port number on which the sever listens for http
requests. If port is not given, an arbitrary
port is picked by the system.

Start Eclipse with "-vmargs -Dserver_port=<port>" instead

host(deprecated)

The host address or name to use
for connecting to the server. The default is nothing, and eclipse will
pick up an available local address.

Products using help in local mode (workbench or stand-alone, not information center),
can set this preference to "127.0.0.1" to
ensure help server is not exposed to other users on the network.

Start Eclipse with "-vmargs -Dserver_host=<host>" instead

org.eclipse.tomcat plug-in:

Deprecated: This plug-in is no longer used by help. No alternative commands available.

Preference key

Usage

Default

acceptCount(deprecated)

The maximum queue length for incoming connection requests
when all possible request processing threads are in use. Any requests
received when the queue is full will be refused.

100

maxProcessors(deprecated)

The maximum number of request
processing threads to be created by this Connector, which therefore
determines the maximum number of simultaneous requests that can be
handled.

75

minProcessors(deprecated)

The number of request processing
threads that will be created when this Connector is first started. This
attribute should be set to a value smaller than that set for
maxProcessors.